


DARK OF NIGHT

by Knightsbridge07



Category: Black Panther (2018), Endgame - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), infinity war - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 16:08:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18759817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knightsbridge07/pseuds/Knightsbridge07
Summary: In the dark, there are no strangers at all...The Midnight, "Lost Boy"





	DARK OF NIGHT

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lilithenaltum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithenaltum/gifts), [Kookynella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kookynella/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts), [GinaPorterss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinaPorterss/gifts), [luckywabbit651](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckywabbit651/gifts), [lotus123](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotus123/gifts), [Malaiikka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malaiikka/gifts), [stanimal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stanimal/gifts), [baby_bubastis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/baby_bubastis/gifts), [wakandawinterprincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakandawinterprincess/gifts), [TheRavynFire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRavynFire/gifts), [SilverCherie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverCherie/gifts), [Tambisa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tambisa/gifts), [writingforeverapassion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingforeverapassion/gifts), [ASingleWhiteDoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ASingleWhiteDoe/gifts), [Rix1998](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rix1998/gifts), [UngarnMoc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UngarnMoc/gifts), [Cao_the_dreamer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cao_the_dreamer/gifts), [Esso1979](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esso1979/gifts), [crazyfan15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazyfan15/gifts), [CindersAndBrimstone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CindersAndBrimstone/gifts), [rachealina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachealina/gifts), [Mina_Romanov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mina_Romanov/gifts), [nonotwithoutyou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonotwithoutyou/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Undertow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15067538) by [lilithenaltum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithenaltum/pseuds/lilithenaltum). 



He’s not the man Dr. Abraham Erskine saw in him all those years ago.

 

He’s not the man his Ma raised him to be.

 

He’s not a hero.

 

Steve Rogers is just like the bullies who used to beat up his pre-Captain America self. He’s become the thing he’s always hated. He could tell himself that Tony Stark deserved the beating he'd given him, but that wouldn’t be the truth.

Steve weeps alone in his darkened room in Wakanda’s royal palace. His face is buried in his hands, and shame and self-loathing are eating him alive.

 

The casual observer might have thought the captain was valiantly defending the honor of a young woman who’d fallen prey to a libidinous older man with wealth that erased virtually all limits. It might also be assumed that he was looking out for his best friend’s girl in his absence.

 

Either implication would be wrong.

 

Steve Rogers is just like everyone else…a filthy sinner with a dark heart…impure motives and corrupt intentions.

 

_Did you know, Tony? When you ran off back home to your wife? Or did you leave her alone to do this all by herself like the useless coward you are?_

 

His chivalrous concern is BS.

 

Steve’s malevolent words to Tony bounce repeatedly off the walls of his troubled mind. It was all lies. Tony was no more a coward than any of the other Avengers, and none of them were in any position to cast stones. He’d simply fallen in love with another woman. Heedless of Queen Shuri’s myriad obligations, her possible grief-obscured judgment, and his own neglected home life, Tony just gave in to his urges. Certainly, he loved Pepper, but Steve could tell Tony had never been _in love_ with her. Their getting married just seemed like a logical next step—not unlike his own short tryst with Sharon Carter.

 

Love is not ruled by logic.

 

Tears slip from Steve’s reddened eyes as he rubs a hand across his forehead. He draws in and exhales a ragged breath.

_You know I would do whatever you needed. You know that._

 

However young she may be, Steve knows Shuri is no child. Wakanda is progressive on most fronts, but it still holds fast to many meaningful, long-standing traditions. She has a proclivity for brazenly flouting them. She’s every bit a queen with poetic beauty and royal bearing, yet her super intelligence, resourcefulness, and penchant for mischief don't limit her to life within the palace. Shuri makes her own decisions, no matter how unwise. She thinks for herself. She does what she wants. She _loves_ who she wants.

 

She loves Tony.

 

And with good reason. Tony, for all his insecurities, lacks nothing—good looks, intelligence, charm with power equal to that of gravity. He’d proven himself a hero on many occasions. His façade of callous self-interest once hid his soft, unselfish core—a core that had been wholly exposed by Wakanda’s queen.

 

Tony loves Shuri.

 

He couldn’t blame either of them for falling in love with each other, not really. Twin flames, he’d heard it called years ago.

 

The times when he crept about in the hallways near her room, he would hear their moans. Between utterances of _pretty baby_ and _daddy_ , it was clear the act wasn’t the mere fulfillment of trivial, fleeting lust. True emotional connection had bled into their involvement. He’d listened to them climax over and over, powerless against his building rage and the draw of the heat they generated. Steve's super hearing keenly made out the rustle of sheets and the merging of flesh. A dark, twisted part of him couldn’t stay away.

 

Because Steve wished it was him.

 

That unstable mix of anger, jealousy, desire, and confusion finally exploded when Okoye left Tony in Steve’s clutches. He’d beaten the man nearly to death over a woman he couldn’t have. Steve wanted her to want him, to _need_ him, like she did Tony. He’d said he wanted to protect her and defend his friend—a friend he was unsure he’d ever see again. But Steve was lying to himself. He knew that. Just like he wanted to spare himself the pain of accepting Bucky’s role in the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark.

 

His mind screamed with every super soldier-enhanced blow to Tony’s body. _You have it all! Is anything ever enough for you? You got everything, and I got nothin’!_

 

He sobs deep in his chest as he rises from the bed. He wants her so much, he can’t stay in Wakanda. He can’t risk anymore outbursts. Steve reaches into his closet and takes a large duffle from the top shelf and takes whatever clothes he grabs from the dresser drawers and stuffs them into the bag.

 

He leaves word with Okoye before he goes. With Shuri being so far along in her pregnancy and the injuries he’d rained upon Tony, Steve was fairly certain they would both turn in early.

 

Steve Rogers had never in his life slipped off in the cover of darkness, unless it was part of a mission.

 

Steve Rogers is not the man he thought he was.

 

* * *

 

_You were a good girl_

_What could I do?_

_I was a lost boy_

_When I met you_

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment.


End file.
